Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov (born January 27, 1948) is a Latvian and American dancer, choreographer, and actor. He was the preeminent male classical ballet dancer of the 1970s and 1980s. He subsequently became a noted dance director.
Born into a Russian family in Riga, Baryshnikov had a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad before defecting to Canada in 1974 for more opportunities in Western dance. After dancing with the American Ballet Theatre, he joined the New York City Ballet as a principal dancer for one season to learn about George Balanchine's neoclassical Russian style of movement. He then returned to the American Ballet Theatre, where he later became artistic director. Baryshnikov has spearheaded many of his own artistic projects and has been associated in particular with promoting modern dance, premiering dozens of new works, including many of his own. His success as a dramatic actor on stage, cinema, and television, has helped him become probably the most widely recognized contemporary ballet dancer. After his 1974 defection, Baryshnikov never returned to the USSR. Since 1986, he has been a naturalized citizen of the United States. After Latvia declared independence on 4 May 1990, he often returned there. In 2017, the Republic of Latvia granted Baryshnikov citizenship for extraordinary merit.
In 1977, he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of Yuri Kopeikine in the film The Turning Point. He starred in the movie White Nights with Gregory Hines, Helen Mirren, and Isabella Rossellini, and had a recurring role in the last season of the television series Sex and the City.
Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov was born into a family of ethnic Russians in Riga, the capital of the Latvian SSR of the Soviet Union. His mother, Alexandra (née Kiselyova), was a dressmaker, and his father, Nikolay Baryshnikov, was an engineer. According to Baryshnikov, his father was a strict and nationalist military man, while his mother introduced him to theatre, opera, and ballet. She died by suicide when Baryshnikov was 12 years old.
Baryshnikov began his ballet studies in Riga in 1960, at the age of 12. In 1964, he entered the Vaganova School, in what was then Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). Baryshnikov soon won the top prize in the junior division of the Varna International Ballet Competition. He joined the Mariinsky Ballet, then called the Kirov Ballet, in 1967, dancing the "Peasant" pas de deux in Giselle. Recognizing Baryshnikov's talent, particularly his stage presence and purity of technique, several Soviet choreographers, including Oleg Vinogradov, Konstantin Sergeyev, Igor Tchernichov, and Leonid Jakobson, choreographed ballets for him. Baryshnikov made signature roles of Jakobson's 1969 virtuosic Vestris along with an intensely emotional Albrecht in Giselle. While he was still in the Soviet Union, New York Times critic Clive Barnes called him "the most perfect dancer I have ever seen."
Baryshnikov's talent was obvious from his youth, but being 5' 5" (165 cm) or 5' 6" (168 cm) tall—shorter than most male ballet dancers—he could not tower over a ballerina en pointe and was therefore relegated to secondary parts. More frustrating to him, the Soviet dance world hewed closely to 19th-century traditions and deliberately shunned Western choreographers, whose work Baryshnikov glimpsed in occasional tours and films. His main reason for leaving the Soviet Union was to work with these innovators.
On June 29, 1974, in Toronto while on tour with the Bolshoi, Baryshnikov defected, requesting political asylum in Canada. As recalled by John Fraser, a ballet critic from Toronto who helped Baryshnikov to escape, Fraser wrote down phone numbers of people on a small piece of paper and hid it under his wedding ring. At a banquet after one show he managed to distract the KGB officer who followed Baryshnikov as an interpreter and gave Baryshnikov the paper. After defection, Baryshnikov joined the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, desiring to begin his North American career outside the big city spotlight of New York. "It's not that we felt we could perform (in Winnipeg) without any risk," Baryshnikov said at the time. "There's risk whenever you perform. We had to start somewhere and we are happy that it was here." In Winnipeg, he was joined by Gelsey Kirkland for the first time, who he would later perform with for several years in New York. The duo danced the pas-de-deux from Don Quixote, drawing standing ovations from the crowd. He also announced that he would not return to the USSR. He later said that Christina Berlin, an American friend, helped engineer his defection during his 1970 tour of London. His first televised performance after coming out of temporary seclusion in Canada was a guest performance with the National Ballet of Canada in La Sylphide. After stints in Winnipeg and Ottawa, he then went to the United States.
1974–1978: Principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre
From 1974 to 1978, Baryshnikov was a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre (ABT), where he partnered with Gelsey Kirkland.
In December 1975, he and his dance partner Natalia Makarova featured prominently in an episode of the BBC television series Arena.
In the first two years after his defection, he danced for no fewer than 13 different choreographers, including Jerome Robbins, Glen Tetley, Alvin Ailey, and Twyla Tharp. "It doesn't matter if every ballet is a success or not", he told New York Times dance critic Anna Kisselgoff in 1976. "The new experience gives me a lot." He cited his fascination with the ways Ailey mixed classical and modern technique and his initial discomfort when Tharp insisted he incorporate eccentric personal gestures in dance.
1978–1979: Principal dancer with the New York City Ballet
In 1978, Baryshnikov abandoned his freelance career to spend 18 months as a principal of the New York City Ballet, run by George Balanchine. "Mr. B", as Balanchine was known, rarely welcomed guest artists and had refused to work with both Rudolf Nureyev and Natalia Makarova. Baryshnikov's decision to devote his full attentions to the New York company stunned the dance world. Balanchine never created a new work for Baryshnikov, but he did coach him in his distinctive style, and Baryshnikov triumphed in such signature roles as Apollo, The Prodigal Son, and Rubies. Jerome Robbins created Opus 19/The Dreamer for Baryshnikov and NYCB favorite Patricia McBride.
Baryshnikov performed with the New York City Ballet as a principal dancer for 15 months from 1978 to 1979. On July 8, 1978, he made his debut with George Balanchine's and Lincoln Kirstein's company at Saratoga Springs, appearing as Franz in Coppélia.
On October 12, 1979, Baryshnikov danced the role of the Poet in Balanchine's ballet La Sonnambula with the City Ballet at the Kennedy Center. This was his last performance with New York City Ballet due to tendonitis and other injuries. His tenure there coincided with a period of ill health for Balanchine that followed an earlier heart attack and culminated in successful heart surgery in June 1979. Baryshnikov left the company to become ABT's artistic director in September 1980, and take time off for his injuries.
1980–2002: Artistic director of the American Ballet Theatre and White Oak Dance Project
Baryshnikov returned to the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) in September 1980 as an artistic director, a position he held until 1989. He also performed as a dancer with ABT. Baryshnikov has remained fascinated with the new. As he observed, "It doesn't matter how high you lift your leg. The technique is about transparency, simplicity and making an earnest attempt." Baryshnikov also toured with ballet and modern dance companies around the world for 15 months. Several roles were created for him, including in Robbins's Opus 19: The Dreamer (1979), Frederick Ashton's Rhapsody (1980), and Robbins's Other Dances, with Natalia Makarova.